Obamavilles and Hoovervilles — TARPtown, USA

In the 1930s, a shanty town was a “Hooverville.” In this depression, the wretched victims of foreclosure live and die in OBAMAVILLES.

Obama is presiding over a $10 trillion bank bailout, all money down a rat hole. Meanwhile, Obama’s so-called anti-foreclosure program is an incentive payment bonanza for predatory subprime lenders — who sold subprime Adjustable Rate Mortgages which should have been illegal all along.

Want to stop foreclosures? It’s easy: pass a law making foreclosure on any primary residence, family farm, or business a federal crime — for five years, or for the duration of the depression, whichever is longer. Put a family out on the street, shut down a farm, close a factory, and the banker goes to Leavenworth. Start with the great foreclosers — Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan, Vikram Pandit [the Bandit] of Citibank, Kenneth D. Lewis of Bank of America and Lloyd C. Blankfein of Goldman Sachs. Don’t let them destroy Detroit, Toledo, Stockton, or any other American city.

To get a recovery, wipe out the $1.5 quadrillion of financial derivatives like those of AIG, which have already cost US taxpayers $190 billion on the way to at least $400 billion. Outlaw the hedge fund speculators that bid up the price of gas in 2008. Re-regulate financial and commodity markets, and bring back the uptick rule and the ban on naked shorts at the SEC.

And for families facing foreclosure, play for time by saying the magic words: “PRODUCE THE NOTE.” To throw you out on the street, the banksters have to show the original piece of paper you signed. In many cases this has been securitized and sent to London or Zurich, and it may take months to find. The predators may even forget about you and go on to more gullible targets – like the dupes who still believe in the inherent justice and infallibility of the non-existent “free market.”